Did Katherine Wilson (aka Sharon Gould) hoax the wrong magazine?
As Jason Soon and Don Arthur correctly predicted yesterday, ‘Sharon Gould’ is left-wing activist Katherine Wilson. Jason and I have a bit of a history with Wilson, having been involved in a lively 2006...
View ArticleCrook analysis of think-tanks, #2
According to Crikey hack Andrew Crook Another Thornley backed outfit, PerCapita, conceived as a direct competitor to free market think tanks like the IPA and the CIS, has been more active in recent...
View ArticleA fantasy think-tank history
Norman Abjorensen must have a masochistic streak, because he emailed me with the news that he is a contributor to The Culture Wars: Australian and American Politics in the 21st Century, which was...
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Why don’t social democrats read work by their think-tanks?
Over the last few years, the left has boosted its think-tank operations through Per Capita and the Centre for Policy Development, joining the more established Australia Institute. But if the results of...
View ArticleDo governments assume citizen rationality and self-control?
The latest Per Capita paper summarises the research on various cognitive biases (loss aversion, endowment effect, etc) and makes suggestions for policymakers about ‘choice architecture’ that helps...
View ArticleEducational Standards Institute
In the Des Moore model of one-man think-tanks, Kevin Donnelly has established the Educational Standards Insitute. I’ve had my disagreements with Kevin in the past, since the conservative ‘standards’...
View ArticleThe first Grattan Institute research paper
The Grattan Institute has released its first report, an analysis of student progress measures by Ben Jensen. It argues that ‘value-added’ measures – that is, how much students improve between NAPLAN...
View ArticleWill Clive Hamilton reflect on ‘alarmist’ failures?
Clive Hamilton’s series of articles on the climate change debate at The Drum is not yet complete, but what’s missing so far is any self-reflection. Things have gone wrong for the alarmist camp, but the...
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How well-known are think-tanks?
I received a letter today from John Roskam, executive director of the Institute of Public Affairs, outlining the organisation’s recent successes (and it has indeed flourished under his leadership). He...
View ArticleCrook analysis of think-tanks
Marcus Smith and Peter Marden are not the only people who believe think-tanks can be analysed without giving any serious attention to what they say or do. Andrew Crook, author of this piece in today’s...
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